A sound like no other! Calefax is a pioneering wind group from Amsterdam, famed throughout Europe. These free-spirited virtuosos have not only invented their own ensemble but transcribe their own wide-ranging repertoire, commission new works, and always thrill their audiences.

A classical ensemble with a pop mentality, Calefax has a uniquely varied repertoire ranging from the year 1100 to the present day, and is open to the influences of world music, jazz and improvisation as a result of countless international tours and collaborations with all kinds of artists from various disciplines, including pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Liza Ferschtman as well as many other musicians, vocalists, choreographers and visual artists.

Calefax has released 19 CDs under the renowned German MDG label and its own RIOJA Records label. All the recordings have earned critical acclaim from the international press. The mezzo-soprano Cora Burggraaf can be heard on the CD entitled The Roaring Twenties,while the On the Spot CD features the trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, who transports Calefax into the world of jazz and improvisation. Their latest CD, entitled Romantic Kaleidoscope, was released in October 2015, packaged within the anniversary book Calefax en de Caleidoscoop, written by the radio presenter Lex Bohlmeijer and published by Cossee.

Calefax has won many major music prizes, including the 1997 Philip Morris Arts Prize, the 2001 Kersjes van de Groenekan Prize and the 2005 VSCD Classical Music Award. In 2012 Calefax received the German Junge Ohren Prize for the family musical show The Music Factory, a co-production with the Dutch theatre company Oorkaan.

The group has given concerts in virtually every country in Europe, as well as touring Russia, China, India, Turkey, Japan, South Africa, Brazil and the United States, performing at major venues such as Wigmore Hall, the Oriental Arts Centre (Shanghai) and Lincoln Center. In January 2013 Calefax had the honour of accompanying the former Dutch Queen Beatrix on her final two state visits, to Brunei and Singapore.

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. He appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; and gives recitals every season in major musical centres. As a chamber musician, he has curated concert series for such prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall, 92nd St Y and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello.

He has a strong interest in historical performance, working with many period-instrument orchestras and giving recitals with harpsichord and fortepiano. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works, including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, and Gyorgy Kurtag’s ‘For Steven’.

Steven’s award-winning discography includes Bach’s Cello Suites for Hyperion (Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year); Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano with Robert Levin; and the Elgar and Walton concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra/Paavo Jarvi. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist - concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including pieces performed on a travel cello which was played in the trenches.

Since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He also enjoys playing for children, and has created three musical stories, with the composer Anne Dudley. His two books for children, published by Faber's, have been translated into many languages; and his latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, has recently been published by Faber’s.

The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’ honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music.

He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

PACIFICA QUARTET

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019 at 7:30 PM

EETHOVENQuartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6

SHULAMIT RANQuartet No. 3MENDELSSOHNQuartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1

“They play with clarity and dark intensity, superbly sustained.”

—The Times (London)

Known for its virtuosity and exuberant performance style, the Pacifica Quartet is recognized as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. Named the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in March 2012, the Pacifica was previously the quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 2017, the Pacifica Quartet was appointed to lead the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Formed in 1994, the grouip quickly won the Naumburg competition and other prestigious awards. In 2002 the ensemble was appointed to Lincoln Center’s CMS Two, and in 2006 was not only awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, but was featured on the cover of Gramophone and heralded as one of “five new quartets you should know about” (the only American quartet on the list). In 2009 the Quartet was named “Ensemble of the Year” by Musical America.

Recent seasons have included performances with guitarist Sharon Isbin; the complete Beethoven cycle for the University at Buffalo’s renowned Slee Cycle; a return to New York’s 92nd Street Y; the culmination of a two-season residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston; tours with Johannes Moser, Jörg Widmann, and Marc-André Hamelin; and the debut of a new cello quintet by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe.

The Pacifica Quartet is a preeminent interpreter of string quartet cycles. Having given acclaimed performances of the complete Carter cycle in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Houston; the Mendelssohn cycle in Napa, Australia, New York, and Pittsburgh; and the Beethoven cycle in New York, Denver, St. Paul, Chicago, Napa, and Tokyo, the Quartet presented the monumental Shostakovich cycle in Chicago, New York, Montreal and at Wigmore Hall.

In 2008 the Quartet won a Grammy for its recording of Carter’s quartets on the Naxos label. Cedille Records recently released the third of four volumes comprising the entire Shostakovich cycle to rave reviews. Recent projects include recording Leo Ornstein’s rarely-heard piano quintet with Marc-André Hamelin, the Brahms piano quintet with the legendary Menahem Pressler, and the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets with the NY Philharmonic’s principal clarinetist, Anthony McGill.

The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Bloomington, IN, where they serve as quartet-in-residence and full-time faculty members at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Prior to their appointment, the Quartet was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana from 2003 to 2012, and also served as resident performing artist at the University of Chicago for seventeen years.

A warm-hearted yet meticulous artist, Nelson Goerner has performed with such orchestras as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Deutsche Symphonie Orchestra of Berlin under Andrew Davis, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder, the Suisse Romande with Neemi Jarvi and Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos, the Orchestra of the 18th Century with Frans Bruggen, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo under Fabio Luisi. Festival appearances include the Salzburg Festival, La Roque d'Anthéron, La Grange de Meslay, Edinburgh, Schleswig-Holstein and Verbier, as well as the BBC Proms.

In the 2013-14 season, Nelson Goerner was awarded an Artist Portrait series at Wigmore Hall, for which he gave four recitals. His 2014-15 season included recitals in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Montpellier, Geneva, Reykjavik, Vancouver, Washington DC, Minneapolis and Buenos Aires.

Mr. Goerner enjoys a long association with the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, where he is a member of the artistic advisory committee, and for whom he recently made recordings on pianos by Pleyel and Erard dating from 1848 and 1849; his recording of the Ballades and Nocturnes earned a Diapason d'Or.

His discography includes recordings of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Busoni, and a DVD of repertoire by Beethoven and Chopin in a live performance from the Verbier Festival. His Chopin recording on the Wigmore Hall Live label was Instrumental Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, and his recording of Debussy for the Outhere/ZigZag Territoires label was awarded the Diapason d'Or of the Year 2013. Nelson Goerner's recent Schumann recording was BBC Music Magazine's Recording of the Month in March 2015, and his next recording project will feature repertoire by Beethoven.

Born in San Pedro, Argentina, in 1969, Nelson Goerner has established himself as one of the foremost pianists of his generation. He was awarded First Prize in the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986, which led to a scholarship to work with Maria Tipo at the Geneva Conservatoire, and in 1990 he won the First Prize at the Geneva Competition.

Mr Goerner lives in Switzerland with his wife and young son. He is professor of piano at the High School of Music in Geneva.

French/Russian violinist Alexandra Soumm has performed with such leading orchestras as the Royal, BBC, London, and Hungarian National Philharmonics, as well as the Baltimore, Galicia, RTÉ National, Danish National, Trondheim, NHK, Tokyo Metropolitan, Tokyo and Munich Symphonies. She has worked with such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Neeme Järvi, Osmo Vänska, Leonard Slatkin and Marin Alsop. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

In the 2017-2018 season, Ms Soumm performed with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner Orchester Linz, the BBC Scottish Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She performs regularly with Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Orchestre National de Montpellier.

She has given recitals at the Louvre, Bozar, and Wigmore Hall. She has also appeared at Verbier and many other festivals.

Ms Soumm won the Eurovision Competition in 2004. She was a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist roster 2010-12, during which time she worked with most of the BBC ensembles. She maintained her connection with the UK through her position as a London Music Masters awardee from 2012-2015.

Also a skilled writer, Alexandra Soumm’s poem “Cercle” was set in 2015 for soprano and voice by composer Eric Tanguy. Composer Christoph Ehrenfellner dedicated his second Violin Concerto and one of his string quartets to Alexandra Soumm.

In 2008 her debut recording (of concertos by Bruch and Paganini) was released on the Claves label. Le Monde de la Musique described her interpretation as “displaying a passionate and lyrical personality.” Her second disc, of Grieg’s violin sonatas, was released in 2010.

Born in Moscow, she began studying the violin at age five and gave her first concert two years later. She later moved to Vienna to study with renowned pedagogue Boris Kuschnir.

Now based in Paris, she, co-founded the non-profit organization Esperanz’Arts in 2012, a collaborative of more than 60 artists performing in schools, homeless shelters, prisons and hospitals. In January 2013, Alexandra was named Godmother of the newly established El Sistema France. She is very involved with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland and has been taking part in the project for the past 10 years. Passionate for teaching and communicating her artistry, Alexandra has given masterclasses in the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, Israel and Belgium.